Visit With Miss Marilyn

The kids love to show Miss Marilyn their projects when she comes over. Here Sarah is showing Marilyn her rendition of the Knight Bus from Harry Potter. So inventive how she made all three stories from cardboard boxes and cups! Dan is sharing his plushie notebook with his most recent writing samples. We so enjoy being with her when she comes over and the kids always flood her with their most recent creations...and she floods them with lots of love and approval. Thank you Marilyn, what a precious gift you are in my life!

Daniel's Lego Blacksmith Shop

These photos are precious to me. When we were doing the phone interview, Barbie suggested we take photos of the kids' work to post on Facebook. Rachel swiftly started taking photos for the live discussion.

Daniel has been on the LOLACHE Kids Forum looking at other LOL kids' projects. He is very interested in Peter L's smithy. We checked out some library books on blacksmithing but I don't think they've been read yet.

When Marilyn asked me to bring some of the kids' work for the phone interview, this Lego smithy was one of several Lego items that Daniel selected to bring.  I would have never really noticed it in all the Lego creations he builds except that it was selected to show Miss Marilyn.

This work is significant to me!  This is an official "product" of learning! I blogged about Daniel's interests and some concerns regarding his learning process. But here is EVIDENCE that something IS germinating in there!

And I LOVE how those lightsabers came in handy in his smithy design! Love the overhead light, too!

(photos by Rachel Poling)

Phone Interview With Miss Marilyn

Marilyn Howshall will be hosting live telephone conference calls for Lifestyle of Learning™ Beginnings Interviews and today I got to be her guest!

I have received SO much from Marilyn. Because of her sacrificial ministry to me, I've wanted to give something back to her. When I first met her, she was concerned about her fingernails. As a professional, licensed nail tech, I saw an opportunity to bless her and have been doing her nails for the past several months. She will often bring something to bless the kids and we often discuss their learning processes.

One day, she helped me with the kids' writing which I blogged about here.

This simple instruction has made the world of difference in our table time and is what we discussed on the phone call.

When we started homeschooling, I used a VERY intense writing curriculum, then we moved into copywork and recently I was printing a photo and having the kids write three sentences about the photo. This turned out to be busy work so I stopped.

In its place, we are doing "real life writing"...mostly thank you notes since Christmas. I'm having the kids write a rough draft of the thank you and then copy that onto stationery. We've been focusing on doing their BEST WORK. Quality over quantity.

Marilyn guided me to proofread and correct their real life writing with a red pencil. She had me explain to the kids to expect the red pencil and it was a tool to HELP them and not to fear it. I am to not just leave them to write alone, but be in the process with them and take a detailed look at their work. I'm looking for proper letter formation (is this too high? is it round enough? is it well formed?). I'm looking for proper punctuation, grammar and spelling.

You can see a sample of Dan's writing before I started correcting and helping him and after we started with the red pencil. He grips his pencil so tight that his hand gets sore quickly so we've had discussions about how to help reduce the pain when writing.

In public school, the kids are expected to write creatively AND work on their handwriting at the same time starting very early. This is MADNESS and contributed to Daniel hating to write.
Next month, Marilyn will have me as a guest again and we'll discuss our progress. Stay tuned.

Miss Marilyn And Preserved Spider Webs

When Marilyn visits, she makes an effort to bring something stimulating for the kids. (Thank you!) This time was Kathryn's notebook displaying her preserved spider webs, wow! Sarah took Marilyn upstairs to share her plushie collection. I always seem to miss Marilyn's face!

Miss Marilyn and Writing

My sweet friend Marilyn has blessed me so much today. She brought notebooks her kids did years ago and talked to me about writing, especially with Daniel. Right now they each write three sentences per day with a photo of something they did (or they can choose a copywork sheet). I've been feeling like it is time to bring that up a notch but wasn't sure what that would look like.

She showed me how to gently proofread their work and take them deeper by helping them with detail. Thank you SO much Marilyn!

Miss Marilyn and Sand Dollar Doves

My friend Marilyn brought over some old sand dollars for my kids. She allowed them to smash one and then showed them the doves which live inside! She and her family used to go to a live sand dollar bed and she had kept these all that time. What a sweetie, thank you SO much Marilyn!